The Community Policing Forum (CPF) in Douglasdale invited various stakeholders for a collaborative meeting at the Indaba Hotel on October 28.
This was also for the launch of the Community In Blue Concept, a national programme that sees police work alongside neighbourhood watches and other safety structures to ensure the safety of communities.
Captain Lesibana Ramashala from Gauteng Province police explained the reasons behind the programme. “We want to standardise the establishment and functioning of Community in Blue patrollers within the South African Police Service and encourage more citizens to participate in a structured way in crime prevention.”
The collaboration was spearheaded by the chairperson of the Douglasdale CPF, Lizzy Mabena who said, “This will ensure more residents are actively involved in crime prevention and crime fighting, giving the community vital insight into crime prevention strategies and deployment which will ensure a trustworthy relationship between police and the community at large.”
She added the aim was to build interrelation between safety and security stakeholders through a multidisciplinary collaboration of all role players in the safety and security clusters. “Also, involve and empower all formalised community structures in ensuring public order through community policing and public order policing, acquaint the community about crime-fighting initiatives within the SAPS through communication, and lastly to capacitate and resource Community Policing Forum structures nationwide.”
Mabena said the Douglasdale community was taking a step forward to the future and looked forward to exciting changes as the community policing model was refreshed.
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